Opening Sequence Analysis - Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging

Sound:

The film starts with the logos of the institutions that have had a a hand in the film, either through production or distribution, etc. There is a non-diegetic sound which is mysterious yet quite happy as I think the instrument used is a xylophone. It makes the audience feel relaxed yet they want to find out more.

The first scene is of a girl, who the audience presumes is the main character, having a conversation with with a man who we find out is her dad through the dialogue. We hear the father and daughter having a normal conversation, about dropping her off to a party but she doesn't want a lift, that you would hear parents saying to their children in real life. This straight way makes the target audience feel connected to the main character as she is a teenage girl who seems to be just like another British teenage girl.

The sound from the beginning continues through the scenes as non-diegetic background music until the girl reaches the party. The sound then fades away and we can hear the diegetic music that is supposed to be playing at the party.

In the dialogue, the main character Georgia is arguing over costumes with her friends as they changed theirs at the last minute. We hear them say typical excuses that teenagers would say like "my mum said no", "it made me look fat" or "I didn't know how to". We also hear the girls mention boys which tend to be one of the biggest worries in teenage girls life. The dialogue effectively makes the audience feel sympathetic towards Georgia and sets the genre as a romantic comedy/chick flick.

When Georgia leaves the party running home, we hear more non-diegetic music playing; it is "She's So Lovely" by Scouting For Girls, this music is fast and happy and about a girl. It was very popular when this film was released and I'm sure all teenage girls would have been singing along to it! This music then becomes the title sequence music.

Titling:

The first titles to appear are the production companies and the director. These appear at the very start of the film when Georgia is talking to her dad. The rest of the titles for the film don't appear until the song "She's So Lovely" by Scouting For Girls start to play. The font is curly and in light pink which gives it a girly feel as well as making it significant that the film is aimed at girls.

The name of the film is the next main title we see. It is placed on the right of the screen, rather than in the middle, this is so that we can see the main character Georgia running on the other side of the screen so we can keep following her in action.

The next title that appears is the main characters name, we know that it is her name as there is a mid-shot of her and her name is placed right next to her. After this, the titles are the names of the rest of the cast. The titles are all placed, sometimes one on its own and sometimes three at a time depending on how important the characters are, at different parts of the shots while we follow Georgia as she runs home. We also get the titles of the crew, e.g. casting, music, co-produce, costume designer, editor, etc.

Camera Work:

The very first shot is from inside the car the Georgia's dad is driving alongside her, it is a medium close up of her dad and we can see Georgia in the background. Although we are following Georgia walking, it is the car that is moving not the camera; the camera is inside the car and so the audience feel as though they are inside the car viewing the action in first person. The next shot however is what helps us understand what is going on because up until think point the audience had just been thrown into a father-daughter conversation and they hadn't seen the main characters face yet. The second shot is a long shot in which we can fully see the main character and the car.


The shot when Georgia enters the party is very important as it helps the audience to feel sympathetic for the main character; it is a point of view shot of everyone at the party looking in horror at Georgia's costume, and judging her. We then has a series of medium close up reaction shots of people seeing Georgia's costume; we see her looking embarrassed, we see a girl (who we presume is the main "villain" as she is focused on at many points in this scene) laughing at her, and we see three girls looking embarrassed and sad for her (we presume that these are her friends). The reverse shots used in the next scene help us to understand the conversation between Georgia and Lindsey (the main "hero" and "villain") and between Georgia and her three friends.

In most of the shots, until Georgia runs out of the party, the camera is mainly stationary. Once Georgia does run out, the camera tracks her as she crosses the road and then pans out to show the scenery of Eastbourne beach where the film is set.

There are many different camera shots from this point on which all help to establish the setting of the film, e.g. the wide shot of Georgia running past Eastbourne Pier, the point of view mid-shots of the elderly people sitting on the benches who are looking at Georgia jog past and the birds eye view of Georgia running past two elderly people. The camera tracking Georgia helps the audience feel like a part of the film as well as showing the landscapes and scenery of Eastbourne and really setting the scene for the film.

Since so many of these shots have elderly people in them it emphasises that fact that the town may not be very lively and fun, instead quite quiet and boring. Before Georgia enters her house we see her coming up her road. It is an extreme long shot and Georgia is on the furthest left third of the screen, this helps to show off the unusual pastel coloured houses on her street.All of these camera angles, shots and movement help to establish the setting and set the mood for the film.

Editing:

The whole opening sequence uses cuts in between shots as it does not disrupt the flow of action and continuity is a lot smoother. The opening is also in chronological order, since it the story isn't meant to be mysterious or difficult to keep up with. The time period also seems to be a mere couple of hours as the only thing that happens is Georgia goes to the party, gets humiliated and then runs home; and the lighting was bright and sunny at the start and the sun seems to be starting to set when she returns home.

Mise en Scene:

The costumes the actors are wearing are hard to describe apart from saying that they are "normal", the actors (apart from the girls at the party) are all wearing clothes that people would wear in everyday lives, especially in England. This make the film seem very down to earth and not unrealistic like a lot of big budget american romantic comedy productions. The costumes which the girls at the party are wearing are also the typical costumes that girls would wear if they had to go in a costume, e.g. cats, angels, devils, etc, - I have been all of these things at least once if not more!

There are not many significant props that are used in this opening as a lot of it is filmed outdoors and is just showing the scenery. The few props however, like the car, all add to the "British middle class" element of the film which helps the movie appeal to the mass market.

Since the film is set in Eastbourne all things that you see the characters in the film doing, are things that the audience can relate to as they are not in a foreign country doing wild things. The lighting of the opening is also very bright and well lit which sets a light hearted mood as opposed to a dark and dim lit opening which would create and tense and mysterious mood.

Narrative:

The opening sequence seems to be following the traditional narrative structure of equilibrium (Georgia walking to the party, talking with her dad), disequilibrium (Georgia reaching the party and being humiliated), and new equilibrium (Georgia returning home).

Opening Sequence Analysis - Legally Blonde

Sound:

The film starts with no background music, just the roar of the lion in the MGM logo. Straight after that we hear song "Perfect Day" by Hoku, it is non-diegetic but immediately sets a happy and chirpy mood to the film as the lyrics are supposed to be uplifting and the tune is one that makes you feel good. The music also sounds girly and if instantly makes you think of a chick flick movie. This song plays for the duration of the opening sequence.

Over the top of the background music we hear the sounds from the actions that people on screen are doing, e.g. having a water fight, playing with a frisbee and wrestling. You hear people say hello to each other and cheer and its all quite cheesy. All of these activities are fun and people are enjoying themselves which also makes the audience feel happy watching them. In a way the people in the opening are having so much fun that it seems slightly unrealistic - but then again, this is an American romantic comedy! There isn't much, if any, conversational dialogue in the opening sequence. There were only the sounds of people enjoying themselves.

Titling:

The titles in the opening start pretty much straight away. The first title that appears is the name of the production company and then the producer, which appear over blonder hair that is out of focus. The name of the film then appears over the blonde hair in bright pink, handwriting style, writing which look extremely girly and is able to appeal to the target market of teenage girls as well as signify the genre of the movie - they even dotted the i's with hearts! The hair then comes into focus while the film title is over it and we see someone brushing their hair whom the audience realises is the main character. The blonde hair in the background also directly linked with the name of the film and the audience now is able to understand what the title means - if they couldn't tell already ...

The following title we see is the name of the actress who plays main character, this also helps us realise that she is the girl with the blonde hair. After this the following titles we see are of the rest of the cast. The titles are all placed, either on their own or two at a time depending on how important the characters are, at the middle bottom of the screen while we follow a card that is being taken inside the sorority house.
The tiles for the crew also appear on  screen as the card is passed around.

Camera Work:

In the very first shot the camera is out of focus but the audience can make out that a girl has her back to us and all we can see is a close up of her blonde hair waving back and forth. When the name of the film appears on the screen then the hair comes into focus. The shot then cuts to a close up of a bicycle basket with a card addressed to Elle inside it and the audience guesses that the name of the main character, and presumably the girl who's hair we just saw, is called Elle.

The are multiple panning shots in this opening sequence, such as when Elle is brushing her hair the camera pans across the action rather than being stationary and just watching it. This is much more exciting to watch as it hints at an action rather than just doing it. The camera also tracks a girl riding the bicycle which contains Elle's card through out the opening, however they track her from various angle and distances, e.g. they track her once though a long shot across a bridge, or they track her again through a medium long shot with the shot taken from a slight left. We then realise that the camera is not tracking the girl, it is tracking the card as the camera follows the card into the sorority house. As the girl cycles along the path there is a point of view shot showing what people on  a "college" (american college, our university) campus, are doing.

There are also many close ups of Elle getting ready. We never see her whole face just the part of her body that she is grooming. E.g. we see her eyes when she is applying mascara, we see her neck as she adjusts her necklace, etc. Parallel to this we see long shots and medium long shots of the card being signed by the "sorority sisters" - the other girls in the house.

Editing:

Through out the opening sequence there are two parallel actions happening, Elle getting ready and the card being signed. The camera cuts in between the two actions to show this and to show continuity. The opening is also in chronological order, since Elle goes from being not ready to ready, and the card gets passed around to everyone until everyone has signed it. The time duration of the opening feels like around an hour since a lot of people were shown to be signing the card - and considering how long it takes us girls to get ready!

Mise en Scene:

The costumes the actors were wearing were preppy summer clothes. The boys were mainly shirtless and the girls were all dressed in very feminine clothing such as skirts and dresses. These really made the characters fit into there stereotypes as all of the girls were girly girls and all of the boys were like american "jocks" and sporty.

The opening sequence was full of props, little details that completely made the film genre a romantic comedy. I think these props were the most important thing in the opening as they made the whole thank all the more girly. The majority of the props we saw were in Elle's room as she was getting ready, girly things dotted around. For example, when Elle is painting her nails we can see her sorority paddle (a sorority paddle gets given to new members, "pledges", when they join a sorority by the older members, "sisters") and as the camera pans over it we learn that she is the president of the sorority "Delta Nu". Other small things we see are the  O.P.I nail polishes which is a very good quality and well known product, the make-up brushes, the pink photo frames and the cosmopolitan magazine stack; all of these props show us what a girly character Elle is - that, and the fact the practically everything in her room is pink.

Some things we see outside of Elle's room are all the sorority or fraternity signs, the exercise equipment, the bathroom full of girls getting ready, the cheerleaders, the flowers on the girls bicycle, etc. All of these signifies are things which people associate with girls and teenagers. Also the lighting in the opening is all very well light and bright with also shows that the genre of film is a happy one rather than a dark film like a horror movie.

Narrative:

Unlike other opening sequences, this one seems to be entirely in equilibrium. However, if taking the whole film into consideration, then this does follow the traditional narrative structure since the opening would be the equilibrium, then there would be a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium.

Opening Sequence Analysis - Findings

After doing the opening sequence analysis I have been able to find quite a few common conventions that are found in a lot of romantic comedy films. 

Sound:

Both of the films I analysed, and other romantic comedies that I have see in the past, tend to use catchy pop songs that girls would listen to as background music at some point during the opening. This makes the audience feel happy, relaxed and it makes the film more mainstream and girly. In Legally Blonde they used "Perfect Day" by Hoku, and in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging they used "She's So Lovely" by Scouting For Girls - both of these songs makes you want to dance around. In our opening sequence we will be sure to use a popular song, maybe one that has a message about girl power, that is catchy and has a good tune.

Titling:

The font used for the titles in both of the films was quite like a girls handwriting, it was quite curly and it was mainly in white however in Legally Blonde it was pink - which is even more girly. The titles in both of the films appeared over  the action that was currently on screen. A lot of the time one the shot would be split in the rule of thirds and one third would be given to the title; at other times there would be a close up of an action and the title would be directly over it, for example in Angus Thongs when Georgia was running and her name appeared next to her. We now know to do the same thing in our opening sequence; we will have a shot of an action and then have the title over it in a girly font.

Camera Work:

There was a great range of camera shots used in both of the opening sequences, from close ups to extreme long shots. All of these made the opening sequences more exciting to watch. It was also a more intersting way show a range of props, rather than just placing them in the centre of the shot. Like in Legally Blonde where there were closeups on Elle's features as she was getting ready, we aim to do the same thing when the main female character in our opening is also getting ready.

Editing:

I found that romantic comedies tend not to use different editing techniques other than cuts. All of the cuts were smooth, the action flowed into each other well and was not jumpy. I know now that we shouldn't over complicate our opening by trying to use a range of editing techniques like wipes and fades, and instead we should just stick to cuts.

Mise en Scene:

The mise on scene of both the opening sequences was the most important thing in defining the genre of the films. They both used girly colours, like pink, and props, like the makeup. They costumes in the film were all very normal things that teenagers would wear. The costumes we will dress the characters for our opening sequence in will also be very normal clothes that people everyday would wear. We will also make sure to place lots of props in our shots so that we can show the audience that the antagonist is  girly, rather then telling them.

Narrative:

The narrative structure for both of the opening sequences were different. In Angus Thongs, the narrative went from equilibrium, to disequilibrium, then back to new equilibrium; however Legally Blonde, was completely equilibrium. The main point that I learned from the opening sequences is that they need to end with equilibrium so this is what we will be sure to do in our opening.

Location

Since our film opening is a romantic comedy and in it the main character is getting ready, it only made sense to have the main location as her house. Since Phoebe is playing the main character we decided to use her house and her own bedroom since it is quite a good size and we would be able to add props and make it look girly. We decided to take some location shots in the areas where we wanted to film so that we could have a better idea of how it would look on camera. Phoebe took the camera home with her and took some of the shots we had decided on.

We took a picture of the shower head so that we could see how the first shot of our opening would look. Our plan was to start with the shower running and then have Naomi turn the water off, though we only see her hand, to show that she just finished showering and is going to get ready next. This would appear after the production company logo's which would have faded into this and we would hear the sound of the shower from the very start.

The following shot was going to be a close up of Naomi's feet getting out of the bathtub. We had hoped that this shot would be from straight on and at eye level, however Phoebe found that she didn't have enough room to do this so she took the picture like this so we could at least see how it looked.

In order to introduce Naomi's character we wanted a shot of her writing her name on the fogged up mirror and then wiping it away and pouting at her reflection so that the audience would be able to see her and get a feel for the personality of the character.  We found that this angle out work best so that we don't catch the camera in the mirror.



We had wanted to film a lot of our shots using a mirror and using reflections as it would really help make the film more personal and would be a more interesting way of watching someone put their make-up on rather than just straight on. We would also intersect shots where the camera pans over items in Naomi's room that would show aspects of her life and her personality to the audience, e.g. items of make-up  Vogue magazines, and multiple Valentines Day cards.

When these pictures were taken we weren't 100% sure exactly which angles and shots we wanted to use to show each action. When we have Naomi walking out of the bathroom, down the hallway, and into her room, we had a bunch of ideas on how we wanted to show this but we weren't sure which one to use. Phoebe took a low level shot of the hallway which made us realise that we in fact preferred it from a high level because it felt more personal as if we were with the character; as oppose to what I thought felt more like spying on her.

To make give our opening sequence a girly/chick flick/romantic comedy feel we figured it was only right to show Naomi's wardrobe since clothes are something ALL girls are passionate about! We wanted to have a medium close up of Naomi from behind starting to open up her wardrobe and then a reverse shot from inside the wardrobe itself showing Naomi continue to open the doors.

Another shot we wanted to have was a point of view shot from Aiden looking up at Naomi in her window. This shot was taken outside from a low angle towards the window but unfortunately we didn't find it very helpful because we still don't know whether we would be able to see Naomi clearly in the window from this distance.


The ending for our opening (that's a bit confusing) will hopefully Aiden leaning against the wall in a very "bad boy/cool guy" way, much like Aaron Johnson does at the end of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and Naomi approaching him, them conversing, and them walking off together. This brick wall opposite from Phoebe's house seems like the best location to do this for many reason. One, it was a nice and tall wall; Two, we would be able to see Naomi's house from the wall and film her approaching without breaking the 180 degree rule; and Three, this wall as reasonably clean compared to some others!

As well as taking still images of the locations Phoebe also managed to film some footage of the rooms so that  we could get a general idea of what the rooms looked like and how much room we would have to be doing things and setting things up, e.g. the lights.

Script

Although our opening sequence doesn't have much dialogue in it except for the very end, we still made a script so that we would have a clear order of exactly what we need to film. Carolina wrote out the script and after proof reading it as a group and tweaking some minor things we had a script ready.

Script:

Naomi is filmed getting out of the shower (Camera focuses/follows on her feet)

Walks over to the mirror and draws her name and a smiley face in the steam (the mirror is foggy due to the steam from the shower) she begins to hum a tune out loud

She looks in the mirror

Walks through the hallway and into her bedroom

Chooses a song on her iPod which is in the iPod dock

Walks towards her wardrobe and opens it (Reverse shot involving this position and another shot taken from inside the wardrobe where we will place a camera)

Drops her towel

(Feet are in the camera frame as the title ‘The Naked Truth’ appears)

Puts on outfit, one clothing item at a item interspersed with track and panning shots of the bedroom and beauty products e.g. make-up, ’50 Shades of Grey’ trilogy and the dog

Walks over to her dresser and begins to apply makeup and do her hair

Walks over to the window

Aiden sitting on the wall outside on his phone - receives a text from his girlfriend on his phone "What you up to babe?"

(Quick cut between scenes)

Naomi sees Aiden present outside of her window – Looking down at him
(Low angle - reverse zoom)

Naomi putting her shoes on, picking up her bag, putting on her jacket and spraying herself with perfume

(Close-up shot of bottle of cream "Blow")

Strokes the dog, “Bye, bye, cutie” and leaves the bedroom, shutting (swings it slightly closed) the bedroom door behind her

(Camera tracks her going down the stairs - reverse shot: camera tracks her behind walking down the stairs then in front of her walking down the stairs)

Looks in the hallway mirror e.g. messes with her hair and pouts

Exits the house and walks round to the wall to meet Aiden

(Reverse shot of Naomi walking out of the front door)

Naomi: (Walks round to Aiden on the wall) Hey, Aiden, baby

Aiden: “Hey babe, you look beautiful”

(Reverse shot between conversation)

*Hugs and hold hands/arm around, begins walking*

Naomi: Aw, you’re so sweet, thank you! *pauses* So where are you taking me today?

(Camera close-up at eye-level while they talk)

Aiden: I’m taking you to the cinema first and then we’ll head back to my place

Naomi: (Cheeky wink/smile): Sounds good

*Couple walk off holding hands*

(Camera stills as the couple walk off out of the frame)

Storyboard

As well as doing a script, it was very important for us to make a storyboard so that we could see exactly what we were going to be having in each shot to make up the entire opening sequence. For some absurd reason I was in charge of making the storyboard and my "AMAZING" drawing skills were really put to the test! I probably went in to more detail than was required since it took me so long to do but I wanted to be thorough so that filming these shot would be much quicker and easier since we would already know what we need to be doing. Hopefully the quality of the images is okay, it was the most I could manage with my phone and badly lit room.

These are the production companies we made up which will appear over a black screen.

To follow the conventions of a rom com, we have the directors name next and then the actors names.

These show the actions after Naomi enters her room.

I made a mistake on this storyboard because I forgot to include the title shot. The third shot is actually supposed to be first.

These shots show Naomi settling down and starting her make-up.

These shots are the close ups of Naomi's features as she applies certain aspects of her make-up.

These shots show the window scene between Aiden and Naomi, however since we are having trouble with our actor for Aiden we may have to cut the first 3 shots and the previous one on the other picture out completely.

These shots show Naomi leaving her room and going downstairs to leave her house.

These are the last shots of the sequence. The top three are if we are able to have a guy in our opening and the bottom three are what we will do if we have to cut the boy idea out.

Certification

In order to find our target audience we first had to decide what age rating our film would be. I went onto the British Board of Film Classification website to find out exactly what was allowed in each classification. After looking through all of the classifications we decided that our film should be certificate 12.

It would be 12 because:

• There may be strong language (e.g. 'f***')
• There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category
• There may be moderate language (e.g. uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at 12 or 12A)
• Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers
• Comedy may lessen the impact of some moderate sex references or innuendo
• There may be nudity in 12A films but sexual nudity should only be brief and discreet

This was exactly what we had pictured in our film when we were planning our full plot synopsis. It would not be able to be a PG because it would have more bad language and more innuendo  however it would not be quite as bad as an 18 since it would not have things like very strong language or real sex.

After finding the classification of our film we have decided that our target audience will consist of mainly girls between the ages of 12 and 22.